Protest against garbage postponed

PUNE, Oct 2: The Hadapsar Industrial Estate Environmental Group has postponed its rasta roko scheduled for October 5 to protest against the apathetic attitude of the Pune Cantonment Board following an assurance by director of defence estates Malati Krishna Kumar.

Dumping of garbage at the place has been a sore point with residents of St Patrick’s Town and industrialists for years. The group pointed out that garbage was being dumped on a private land reserved for industrial units in the development plan. It was alleged that although lease on the land had expired, no action was initiated by the PCB to prevent garbage dumping there.

Convenor Ajit Badve, Don Patrick, and R.R. Bharucha, secretary of the group, said after meeting the defence estates director that although she was receptive to the plight of the citizens, cantonment executive officer J Sharma insisted that the PCB would continue to dump garbage there.

They said they had postponed action until they get a reply from her.